298 A HISTORY OF 



agricultural college for the education of the farming 

 classes. Improvement in the dwellings and domestic 

 conditions of the farming and labouring classes was 

 undertaken at a later stage. 



The Society was incorporated by Royal Charter, 

 under the title of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 Ireland, on June the 28th, i860. The early publica- 

 tions of the Society contain detached reports of drainage 

 and reclamation schemes carried out by successful 

 competitors for the Society's gold medals. Schemes 

 for improving the dwellings of the people, with plans 

 for farm homesteads and labourers' cottages, and 

 estimates of the cost of erecting them, also occupy 

 a considerable space. The reports of local farming 

 societies show that the efforts of the Society in establish- 

 ing and assisting these bodies were not unsuccessful. 

 In the year 1877 there were on the list twenty-one 

 local societies, which received grants varying from 

 LZ to £39> amounting in all to ^296, in addition to 

 which certain medals were offered for local competition. 

 Though the financial support given to the farming 

 societies was small, it had the desired effect of stimu- 

 lating interest and encouraging local effort. 



It is, however, by its provincial shows that the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland will be best 

 remembered. These were modelled after the shows 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the 

 Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, of 

 which two societies shows are still the leading features. 

 The provincial shows were on the whole an undoubted 

 success, and they had a marked effect in improving 

 the breeds of stock, and introducing new agricultural 

 methods. These shows were held without inter- 

 mission from 1842 to 1866, when rinderpest prevented 

 the holding of a cattle show ; instead of it, a horse 



